Greece and Crete

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War Museum Askifou, Sfakia, Crete

Written by capybara on

From: worldwidetravelblog.blogspot.com

My wife and I discovered this amazing private War Museum situated in a the mountain village of Askifou, during our recent trip to Crete. We were given a personal tour by the friendly Curator George, along with a warming tot of "Raki" and some nibbles. The following information sheet was written by George and he has kindly allowed me to publish it here to share with you.

War Museum Information Sheet.

The War Museum was founded by Mr. George A. Hazidakis following the events of May 1941 in Crete. Mr Hazidakis who collected all the items on display after the war, and his son Andreas subsequently opened the museum to the public. In 1941, Germany by then had gained control of almost the whole of Europe and Adolph Hitler intended to hide his plans to attack Russia until the last possible moment. Operation "Merkur", the attack on Crete by violent airbourne invasion should have made Stalin aware of Hitlers plans to get his hands on the Arabian oilfields. This was to be the largest airbourne attack operation ever undertaken.
At the time, Crete was being defended by soldiers comprising of 40,000 combined British, Australian and New Zealanders, as well as 10,000 unarmed Greek troops who had escaped from mainland Greece. Churchills friend, General Freyberg, was the army commander in Crete. The brains behind the German attack was General Student, a former officer of the Wehrmacht's para divisions.
On the morning of 20th May 1941, 500 triple-engined Junkers-52 aircraft took off from various airfields on the Greek mainland. Fighter and and Bomber aircraft also flew in this first attack formation. The airport in Maleme was the first target to be attacked, followed by the main towns of Chania, Rethymnon and Heraklion. At the beginning the German casualties were appaling. The first attack division suffered almost 90% fatalities. Nevertheless, the Germans strong fighting spirit kept them going. They started to win thanks to their overwhelminhg air superiorty, and soon the resistance on the ground by the brave British and Commonwealth troops was broken. Freybergs troops then had to evacuate along the routes Vrises, Askifou, Imbros and Chora Sfakion harbour, to be shipped away by British destroyers and submarines to Alexandria.
By the time the Germans occupied Sfakia on May 31st, the fighting was practically over. George Hazidakis, then a ten year old boy from Askifou village, was an eye witness to the fighting. He was wounded and some of his family members were killed. After the war George started to collect arms, weaponry and army memorabilia found in the surrounding area and, step by step, he has built up the current collection to what it is today on display in the War Museum in Askifou. Sadly the Greek authorities have declined to support the museum to this day and it relies on donations from visitors to keep it running.

British Norton Motorbike.

British Bren Gun

Various Items on display Inside the Museum.

British Lewis Gun.

German Bomb and Mortar.

Andreas George Hatzidakis son of George the Museum founder and my wife Liz next to a German Mine.

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